Mokonyane has accused the commission of severely breaching her rights

Former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi, on Monday, revealed to the commission of inquiry into state capture that Bosasa paid Nomvula Mokonyane R50,000 on several occasions in exchange for political protection.

Agrizzi told the commission that Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson would take money with him to see the minister. He said he came to know about the payment when he packed the money around 2009 which Watson often would deliver in front of him.

“Chair, it was monthly, I wouldn’t deliver it, Mr. Watson would deliver it because he used that time to talk about the politics of the day,” Agrizzi told the commission, reported Eye Witness News.

He also revealed that the company bribed Mokonyane with lavish Christmas parties, gifted her groceries and expensive alcohol to every year and even paid for her relatives’ funeral and hiring cars for her daughter.

In response to the allegations made against Mokonyanes, her spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase said that she finds Agrizzi’s claims to be preposterous and lacking in factual accuracy.

“They will be denied flatly in totality once such an opportunity is provided, should the allegations indeed be before the commission and made in testimony and under oath,” Ndamase said.

Mokonyane has even sent a letter to the state capture commission accusing it of severely breaching her rights. In the letter to the commission by her lawyers, the minister claimed that there are officials at the inquiry who are undermining its integrity. She pointed out that she was never given a reason why the Commission deviated from its rules which require implicated persons to be informed before testimony incriminating them can be heard.

Mokonyane said that the commission failed to give her a chance to make representations on the decision and didn’t inform her that Agrizzi is implicating them beforehand because of concerns around his safety. She has called out the commission to consider her issues and take remedial action.